


Across the Sea

by withcoffeespoons



Series: Nixa Shepard [8]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Afterlife, F/M, Post-Synthesis Ending, Synthesis Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27275680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withcoffeespoons/pseuds/withcoffeespoons
Summary: “I—I have to…something. I wasn’t—I’m not done.”“Shh,” Thane soothed, smoothing a hand over her forehead. His hands had never felt so soft, she was sure. “Your work is done,” he said. “Your fight is over.
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard, Thane Krios/Female Shepard
Series: Nixa Shepard [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/388603
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Across the Sea

Unseeing, Nixa Shepard floated on an endless sea of light. Adrift in a void of substance and time—no history, no purpose, only the essence of herself and the warm swell that seemed to embrace her from all sides, she rose and fell like the tides in immeasurable cycles.

And then she felt the sand beneath her, and as though waking from a dream, from the seafoam, she collected into form. Her body fit around her consciousness with familiarity. The shore scraped at her knuckles, her shoulders, her hair.

Awareness came to her like the stirred sand rising into the waves. She felt no pain. She couldn’t remember why, but she knew there should be pain.

The waves deposited her like driftwood on the beach, warm water wearing at the sand beneath her as the tides flowed incessantly on.

She saw nothing but light.

There were voices, she thought, and then there weren’t.

There was something important, she remembered. Something she needed to do.

It was so nice here.

“Siha,” came a soft voice.

Nixa knew that voice. _Thane_. Knew the emotion carried on it, too. Was it surprise? Or disappointment—no. The question nagged.

“Can you hear me?” Thane asked, and his arms cradled her as she bobbed on the waves.

 _Sad_ , she realized. He sounded sad.

“Thane?” she rasped, her voice sluggish.

“I’m here, siha.” A sudden wave thrust her into his lap. His hands were there to catch her.

“Am I dreaming?” This wasn’t right. She’d been somewhere else before—whenever before was. It was important. She was doing something important.

“No,” Thane confessed, his voice breaking.

“I—I have to…something. I wasn’t—I’m not done.”

“Shh,” Thane soothed, smoothing a hand over her forehead. His hands had never felt so soft, she was sure. “Your work is done,” he said. “Your fight is over.

“Can you open your eyes?”

They were closed? She tried, slowly, and the light seemed to coalesce into colors, too much too fast, but there were Thane’s eyes, dark and steady at the center of her world. It took all of her strength, but she raised a hand to touch his face. “You’re real?” She fought to surface into clarity amidst the confusion that swallowed her. “I lost you,” she said thickly, though she was sure of the words.

“You did. And Kalahira guided you back to me.”

“Kalahira…” The name was familiar to her tongue, a practiced sound.

_Guide this one to where the traveler never tires, the lover never leaves_

She was dead, Nixa realized, her chest suddenly heavy. Memory rushed to her all at once. “The conduit? The reapers? Did it—?”

“You did it, Shepard,” called a new voice—no. An old voice. The sound froze Nixa’s breath before she could remember why.

“We aren’t alone, siha.”

“Kaidan,” she breathed, afraid that naming the voice would shatter all that surrounded her.

“And others,” Thane said. “There will be time to explain. At last,” he observed, “we have no shortage of time.”

“I didn’t know,” Nixa managed, the thought vital to voice. “But I wanted, hoped. I—I prayed, every night, so I—”

“I know,” Thane said. “I listened as you called to Kalahira.”

“Anything if I could see you again.” She flexed her fingers, her thumb settling into the familiar groove of his chin. “Selfish,” she admonished herself quietly.

“But you are here,” Thane said. “You are forgiven.

“Rest now, siha. There will be time later.”

They had an infinity of _later_.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Tumblr on January 8, 2016.


End file.
